K1984
Registered User
- Feb 7, 2008
- 14,106
- 14,065
You can't compare a team with one year of playoff wins to a community whose entire identity is at least in part based off of their team's dynasty from 40 years ago. Sorry. Arizona never filled the rink, because they never laid a foundation of success, so their community never had a reason to buy in and give it a chance. In Canada, that reason is hockey. In half of our Canadian markets, there is a tradition of winning (if you go back far enough, eh Tarana).
They weren't an average team. Look at how often they won a playoff round. Go ahead, count the number of years. Since they moved to Arizona, they had only one year that could be judged as successful. A couple of others that you could say they were average, as they overacheived and made the playoffs playing defense first, trap hockey. They missed the playoffs how many times?
You're trying to compare fans returning to support a struggling franchise, regardless of success due to loyalty, to a team that never gave its community a reason to be loyal to it. They never spent on star players. They never played exciting hockey. They won playoff rounds once. And in those playoffs, they filled the rink.
Sorry, but the only comparison between the Oilers and Coyotes from a business perspective that should be taken the least bit seriously, is that awful owners almost took down both franchises. The only reasons we survived Pocklington, is affinity from the community due to our dynasty, and being in Canada. Arizona never had those. They didn't put the people in place to be good enough to compete. You can't blame the fans for not showing up when the organization gave them a reason to in 1 year of their existence.
This isn't to mention that their actual NHL arena, in an Edmonton context, is located roughly at the northern edge of Sherwood Park. Not the most convenient trek to get to the rink on a weeknight. It also isn't like Edmonton where Oiler fans generally evenly distributed in every part of the city. I listened to an interview with their former CEO a few years ago, and he basically said their heat maps are telling them that their fan base is located primarily downtown and Scottsdale, which is not at all close to the rink in Glendale.
I think a team can work in AZ with the right owner and the right rink located in Scottsdale. Unfortunately for them, almost every business decision they made since inception has been terrible and this is the result.